Popular Web site Damn You Auto Correct is claiming that a new segment on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” repurposes their original content without proper credit.
The segment entitled “Auto Incorrect” features viewer-submitted images of texts where certain words were auto-corrected by smart phone software, completely changing the intended meaning.
AutoCorrect images have long been a popular meme on the Internet, but it in this case, Damn You Auto Correct claims the particular texts on DeGeneres’ inaugural segment were lifted directly from their site. In fact, two out of three of the examples were previously published in the Web site’s book.
Jillian Madison, the creator of the site and author of the book of the same name, made the claim on a recent blog post:
The season 9 premiere of the Ellen DeGeneres show aired yesterday. Since then, we’ve gotten thousands of emails from DYAC fans and readers telling us she used 3 of the oldest, most popular autocorrect entries directly from this website (and the book) for a comedy bit. Unfortunately she didn’t make any mention of DYAC.
However, Madison goes on to make it clear that she is a fan of DeGeneres and is simply arguing for credit where credit is due:
To be clear, I’m a huge fan of Ellen! I’m not boycotting her show or saying she’s the sole person responsible or anything stupid like that. I just don’t think it’s fair to use content from a website without credit.
While introducing the segment, DeGeneres notes, “There are some Web sites that are now posting the autocorrects…” but then goes on to say that her viewers had sent in the images she was about to share. “These are actually things that people sent to us that actually happened to them.”
In her blog post, Madison goes through each of the three autocorrect images DeGeneres shared on the program and cited them directly to previous posts on her site. She also noted that one of the images was “the single most famous autocorrect entry from the site.”
